All IPAF Access Rental Companies Must Report Accidents as of 2013

Date:

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

All UK IPAF rental companies must report any accidents involving the use of mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) and their staff as of 2013. This new rule comes into affect after IPAF’s 2012 safety pledge, whereby the federation encouraged all powered access users and companies to report their accidents on a global database. The decision to make accident reporting mandatory was made at the first IPAF UK Country Council meeting. The Council’s Chairmain, Peter Douglas, explains:

“This is the initiative for IPAF. We need to make the industry safer. Go to the IPAF website and report accidents. The data collected will help indicate the most common high risk behaviours. And if we can reduce those risky behaviours, we will gradually reduce the number of fatal and serious accidents.” The use of aerial platforms such as scissor lifts, boom lifts or cherry pickers, can be a hazardous, especially when working at height or in challenging environments. Safety should always be paramount and the first

The accident database was set up in order to start to recognise patterns in accidents and find ways to prevent future occurrences, as well as improving general safety for aerial work platform operators. “All members are strongly encouraged to get on board and report all accidents, near misses, and contractor incidents they are aware of,” Douglas says, “The more information we have, the better we will be armed to reduce accidents in our industry.”

The initial mandate calls for UK powered access rental companies to report any incident that resulted in lost time for employees, and any company that commits to reporting accidents on the database will be able to submit and record their data confidentially. Accident records will need to be signed off by the company monthly. They will then be able to analyse their data within graphs that monitor safety performance by geographical location.